Oh brother, what Agostino do we root for?
Harborfields' boys varsity basketball head coach Chris Agostino during the game. (February 4, 2010) Credit: Newsday/Photo by Joseph D. Sullivan
As the gym at Farmingdale State filled up for Wednesday night's Suffolk Class A final between No. 2 Amityville and No. 1 Harborfields, several families had a decision to make: Where to sit.
Signs in the lobby directed Amityville fans to sit on the left and Harborfields followers on the right. But what if you rooted for both?
That was the case for several members of the Agostino clan. Jack coaches Amityville. His brother Chris coaches Harborfields. So those relatives could choose sides for sitting and, presumably, rooting.
Then there's a third brother, Tony, who coaches Newfield and whose season was over. Tony's daughter Skyla, 15, and Jack's daughter Julia, 14, are more like best friends than cousins. What's a teenager to do?
Skyla walked into the Amityville side of the gym, well before game time, and carefully counted rows, looked toward center court, then purposely climbed up the bleachers and sat down. "Right in the middle," she said with a smile.
Moments later, she attracted a crowd for her choice of evening attire. Skyla was wearing a unique T-shirt. It was half red (Amityville's color) and half green (Harborfields, of course), carefully cut and sewn by Tony's wife, Liz, at her daughter's urging.
On the front, the shirt read, "Agostino Basketball 3-2-11." Starting on the right (red) shoulder was the word "Warriors," the Amityville nickname. Starting on the left (green) shoulder was the word "Tornadoes," for Harborfields. On the back, her shirt read: "It's On." She also wore a bandanna around her forehead, with alternating twisted strands of red and green cloth.
Julia's shirt, of her own making, wasn't quite as neutral. It was a pink tie-dyed T-shirt that read "Agostino Basketball 3-2-11." It featured a drawing of an Indian ''warrior'' dunking a basketball with a whirling ''tornado'' under the net.
Seeing the attention being given to his sister and cousin, Skyla's brother Jordan, 14, bounded down the steps to make his own fashion statement, removing his jacket to reveal another creation of Liz, the seamstress. This was the button-down look, half of two sport shirts cut and neatly stitched together at the center - again, half red and half green.
Christmas colors in March on a very festive night - on and off the court.
(Postscript: Harborfields won, 67-62.)
